The arrival in South America; The first days in Santiago de Chile and Valparaiso; Picking up the bikes;On Sunday, October 13th, the trip began.

I took a plane from Frankfurt via Madrid to Santiago de Chile.
At Santiago Airport I met Frank (one of the other four "container guys"). We spent several days in Santiago and slept in "Scott's Place", a Hostel twenty minutes from the centre by bus. We didn't do too much sightseeing in Santiago but if you want to, you can easily spent a week there, visiting museums, parks, restaurants or clubs.

As our motorcycles arrived in Valparaiso, we went there by bus. In the "Casa Aventura" (Highly recommended; German owner) we met the other three "container-guys". After one or two days I really started to like Valparaiso. The city is surely worth a visit. On Friday, October 17th we finally were able to pick up our bikes at the harbour. The battery of Christians Africa Twin was broken, and so the bike had to stay there for the night.

The next day, an electrical part (Laderegler) of Franks Afica Twin broke and so Chistian and Frank had to go back to Santiago to get their first spare parts.

Meanwhile, Rafael (BMW R100GS PD) and I left Valparaiso, heading south. The journey had begun.